In a reading from Pocketful of Miracles Joan Borysenko reminds us that grace is a gift.  It is independent of our good works or our failings.  She goes on to cite the words of a Hindu master: the winds of grace are blowing all the time – we just need to raise our sails.

Graceful living combines awareness, intention and action. Awareness is being mindful of what is going on around us and what our bodies are telling us.  Anyone who has sailed knows the importance of being attentive to the presence, force and direction of the wind.

Intention is setting the destination.  It may be to complete a project due at the end of the week.  It may be to embark on a journey of many months or even the rest of our life.

However, unless we take action, unless we raise our sails, we will not harness the winds of grace. Stuck in our doldrums we will miss the gifts the universe offers us.

What does it mean for you to raise your sails today?

Each day we light candles and oil lamps in our home. It is not because we don’t use electricity to see at night. Nor do we avoid the technology of lasers or LEDs. After all, solar panels power our house.

Rather, the flame’s flicker signals our deeper connections of the spirit. The candles attend our daily meditations. They bless our meals. They stab the darkness with gentle spikes that give us strength to deflate our fears. They accompany our celebrations. We light them to remember loved ones, special seasons and rites of passage.

The greatest gift in lighting candles may be to remind ourselves of our purpose in life.  When stripped of all pretense and presumption, that purpose may be nothing more and nothing less than offering the light and warmth of our love to all around us.  May that flame burn brightly today and all seasons of our life.

A friend who is living with an invasive and aggressive cancer posted this poem on his Caring Bridge page.  It is not an easy thought to embrace, and I wonder about his ruminations on it in the middle of his nights.

Unsettling as it is to our conventional ways of answering our doorbell, it is an invitation to each of us to reflect on a deeper definition of our soul’s hospitality.

THE GUEST HOUSE – Jelaluddin Rumi (translation by Coleman Barks)

This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a crowd of sorrows, who violently sweep your house empty of its furniture, still, treat each guest honorably. He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice, meet them at the door laughing and invite them in. Be grateful for whatever comes, because each has been sent as a guide from beyond.

I am reading Mitch Albom’s Tuesdays with Morrie, enjoying the dying professor’s insight and wit and the author’s simple and compelling delivery.  I read a few pages each day, savoring their lessons and charm.  Today’s excerpt holds a lesson for me and perhaps you as well.  In this passage sportswriter Albom recounts an experience while covering Wimbledon.

“On one particularly crazy day, a crush of reporters had tried to chase down Andre Agassi and his famous girlfriend, Brooke Shields, and I had gotten knocked over by a British photographer who barely muttered “Sorry” before sweeping past, his huge metal lenses strapped around his neck.  I thought of something else Morrie had told me:

So many people walk around with a meaningless life.  They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important.  This is because they’re chasing the wrong things.  The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.  I knew he was right.”

My task today and everyday is to wake up and make sure I’m chasing the right things.